Monday, January 27, 2014

Bieber's troubles strike note with parents

Gordon Hay, Executive Director of Venture Academy sent us this piece following his reading of Candace Plattor's article on our blog the other day.

Photo: CBC

Bieber in trouble again

Media outlets around the world have been captivated by Canadian pop
star Justin Bieber's latest tussle with the law, but a much wider
audience finds itself engrossed by the singer's struggles with himself.
Bieber's increasingly erratic public behaviour, escalating bouts of
temper and brazen use of both legal and illegal substances are an
all-too familiar narrative for parents who have watched their own
teenaged offspring travel down the same treacherous path.
Parents say the issues at the core of most celebrity struggles can resonate in even the most everyday circumstances.
Hollie Pollard watches Bieber's travails with a mixture of sadness
and empathy. The pop star's public struggles remind her forcibly of the
years she spent trying to bring her 16-year-old daughter back from the
brink of a crippling mental health crisis.
Her child never touched the substances or mixed with the stars that
have figured in Bieber's story. But her personality disorder and
uncontrollable anger caused turmoil all the same.
"I feel for them and I feel for their parents," Pollard said in a
telephone interview from Toronto. "We recognize the challenges for that
person, and we recognize that the likelihood of getting help is pretty
slim unless somebody steps in."
For many troubled teens, the only ones on hand to offer the necessary support are the parents themselves, Pollard said.
Dr. Marshall Korenblum, Chief Psychiatrist at Toronto's
Hincks-Dellcrest Centre for Children and Families, said rebellion is a
normal part of growing up for teenagers of all walks of life.
A healthy skepticism towards rules and authority, he said, helps
teens establish their own identity and ought to be nurtured within
reason.
Gordon Hay, executive director of teen treatment facility Venture
Academy, said he's seen a rise in such dangerous behaviour in the 13
years since the residential program has been open.
The antics of youthful celebrities such as Bieber or Britney Spears,
he said, have gone a long way towards skewing perceptions of what's
acceptable behaviour.
Substance abuse and self-harm in particular, he said, have increased
markedly since the school's inception. Fully half of all applicants
report cutting themselves now compared to just one or two applicants a
year when the program launched, he said.
"Those types of behaviours are almost moving towards being
acceptable," he said. "It seems like the message often is that some of
those behaviours are being classified as normal. Just because they are
on the increase, for example suicidal thoughts, self-harm . . . does not
negate the seriousness of that behaviour."

Sunday, January 26, 2014

Justin Bieber's sad enablers

Not
only were we hearing story after story about Justin’s “antics”—a media
description that only served to minimize the severity of his actions—but
those very actions were becoming more and more bizarre. Before today’s
arrest for driving under the influence and resisting arrest, he was
pitching raw eggs at his neighbor’s house causing thousands of dollars
worth of damage—not to mention a sizable stash of illegal drugs that
were found in his home.

Do we have to wonder how this happened—or
is it finally becoming clear that enabling addicts only keeps the
addiction going? How many more examples, public or private, do we need?

When
we have addicted loved ones in our lives, we also have a choice to
make—will we let them get away with really bad (and sometimes downright
dangerous) behavior, or will we step in and make the boundaries clear?
Do we care enough about the addicts we love to hold them accountable, or
do we continue to be people-pleasers and yes-men, making excuses and
turning our eyes away from what is really going on?

Whose denial causes the most damage—the addict’s or the enabler’s?

When loved ones enable, they are actually meeting their own
needs, not the needs of the addict. People struggling with addiction
may want to continue to be enabled—but what they actually need is for
someone to love them enough to say, “That’s it, no more.” When loved
ones enable, they are not acting in loving ways toward the addict.

People
enable for all kinds of reasons—but the most common is that they fear
any form of conflict so they dare not say “No” and risk the fallout that
might ensue. This constitutes meeting their own needs, not the needs of
their addicted loved ones.

And in Justin’s case—didn’t his
entourage learn anything from what happened to Michael Jackson? MJ died
as a direct result of enabling, as a direct result of people saying yes
to him when no was the right answer all along. And of course, when money
is involved, it’s often a game-changer. MJ’s people wouldn’t say no to
him until it was too late—they didn’t seem to care enough to risk the
anger and the fallout.

It seems that this is what’s happened with
Justin too except—thankfully—no one has been physically hurt or killed
as a result of allowing him to have far too much money and power—at
least, not yet.
How could it happen that not one person in
Justin’s entourage stepped in to stop his immature and irresponsible
father from setting up a drag race at 4 o’clock in the morning, when
Justin was clearly under the influence of mind-altering substances?
Really, what is wrong with these people, how can they face themselves?

I’m
not saying that Justin doesn’t have any responsibility here—of course
he does. But unlike the ridiculous Rob Ford, Justin is still a youth at
only 19. Even though I am definitely way past my teen years, I can still
remember what I was like at 19—many of us can recall those days. Did I
make positive, healthy choices for myself then? Not often—and I wouldn’t
expect Justin to do so either, especially with far too much
inappropriate influence and clout and not enough truly caring people
around him.
Enabling keeps addictive behaviors going. Enabling
feeds the needs of the people who enable, not the needs of the people
who are behaving badly.

What if we all decided to grow a backbone
and started speaking our truth to the addicts in our lives, to set
healthy and appropriate boundaries with them, to love them enough to
risk our own discomfort when they became angry with us? What if we
respected ourselves enough to do the right thing and raise the
accountability bar in those relationships?

Something magical just might happen.

Justin,
my deep hope for you is that someone loves you enough to tell you the
truth, despite the consequences that could occur. I know that Michael
Jackson is someone you choose to emulate—but my hope for you is that the
orange jumpsuit and handcuffs have been enough to wake you up, so that
you don’t have to follow him into the grave.

Thursday, January 23, 2014

What
Are They Smoking?

Liberals want to ban trans fats
and legalize marijuana. Does that make any sense to
you?

By WILLIAM J. BENNETT and
CHRISTOPHER BEACH

January 22, 2014

The
national debate over marijuana legalization has caught many liberals in a
confounding paradox. These liberals, who have fought vociferously for bans on
cigarettes, super-sized sodas, trans fats and other unhealthy substances, now
either advocate for the legalization of marijuana or stand unopposed to it. This is notable because, whatever else it is, marijuana
is not healthy.

In his recent New Yorker interview,
President Obama remarked , “I smoked pot as a kid, and I view it
as a bad habit and a vice, not very different from the cigarettes that I smoked
as a young person up through a big chunk of my adult life.” But then
he added, “I don’t think it is more dangerous than alcohol.” Of the
legalization in Colorado and Washington—never mind the unresolved
conflict between state and federal law—he said, “it’s important for it to go
forward.”

Got
that? The same president who signed into
law a tough federal anti-cigarette smoking bill in 2009
now supports marijuana legalization.

The
inconsistency and self-contradiction is obvious. In the name of public health, liberals wage political
war against genetically modified organisms, french fries and tubby kids, yet
stand idly by, or worse, support the legalization of a mind-impairing substance
known to be addictive and have deleterious effects on the brain.

The very same year, for example,
that Colorado
legalized marijuana, the Colorado Senate passed (without a single Republican vote) a ban on
trans fats in schools.Are we to believe eating a glazed donut is more harmful than smoking a
joint? California has already
banned trans fats in restaurants statewide, but now is on the brink of legalizing marijuana statewide
come November. Former New York City Mayor
Michael Bloomberg supported New York Gov. Andrew
Cuomo’s effort to decriminalize marijuana in New York State,
while at the same time supporting a ban on extra-large sodas.A 32-ounce Mountain Dew is bad for you, but pot isn’t?

The
logic is dumbfounding. For many years, health-conscious liberals have waged a deafening,
public war against cigarettes. Smoking bans in public places like restaurants and bars have been
enacted in states all over the country.Recently, New York City, New Jersey and several other cities and states
have extended those bans to include the newest tobacco fad—e-cigarettes. Yet, when it comes to smoking marijuana? Crickets.

What explains this obvious paradox? Do
these liberals think that marijuana is somehow less harmful than a Big Gulp
soda or a bucket of fried chicken? It’s hard to believe that’s
the case, given the vast amount of social data and medical science on the
dangers of marijuana.

William J. Bennett, former secretary
of education and director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, is a
fellow of the Claremont Institute and host of the nationally syndicated radio
show, “Morning in America.”

(CNN) --
President George H.W. Bush appointed me as the nation's first director of
national drug control policy -- or "drug czar" -- in 1989. We
took on many big fights, the largest of which was the cocaine epidemic
spreading from the jungles of Colombia
to the streets of the United
States. We
conducted an all-out assault on drugs through tough enforcement measures and
public education.Contrary to "war on drugs" critics, drug use
and addiction dropped across the country.

The issue of marijuana legalization was
far less prominent than it is today, although even then, some argued that we
should experiment with legalization. I told
them not on my watch; the cost to society would be too great.

If you don't want to take my word that it
can be harmful, perhaps you'll take Lady Gaga's.

In a recent interview, the world-famous pop
star admitted she was
heavily addicted to marijuana. "I have been addicted to it and it's ultimately related to
anxiety coping and it's a form of self-medication and I was smoking up to 15 or
20 marijuana cigarettes a day with no tobacco," she said. "I was living on a totally other psychedelic plane, numbing
myself completely."

Lady Gaga said she was speaking out to
bust the myth that marijuana is just a harmless plant."I just want young kids to know that you actually
can become addicted to it, and there's this sentiment that you can't and that's
actually not true."

Today a fully functioning experiment in
legal marijuana for adults is going on in Colorado
and another one is set to begin later this year in Washington. Supreme
Court Justice Louis Brandeis once remarked that in our democratic Republic, the
states are the laboratories of democracy. We are
running a few labs now and shall see what happens.

But, as with any public debate, we need
to hear all sides.So far, the advocates of marijuana legalization have
dominated the public arena. It's
certainly had an effect. According to a new CNN poll, a majority of Americans
support legalizing marijuana.But where are the voices of the wounded? Where is the
outrage from the families who have been hurt?

I've talked to parents all over the
country who lost children to drug abuse -- not to marijuana alone; though in
many cases it was a gateway drug or part of their deadly drug concoction. People
have been deeply hurt by drug related accidents or spent thousands of dollars
on drug rehabilitation.We need to hear their voices.

During my tenure as drug czar, I traveled
to more than 120 communities to see firsthand the impact of illegal drugs. Among
those visits was a trip to Boston
to take part in drug busts in some of the city's most broken and dangerous
neighborhoods. Not
once during that visit did a parent or community leader advocate for
legalization or loosening drug restrictions. Rather,
they wanted the drugs confiscated and drug dealers locked up.They knew the damage drugs had inflicted on their
children and communities.

That same evening Harvard University
held a discussion on drugs and law enforcement. There
I listened to scores of academics argue for legalizing or decriminalizing drugs.

It's hardly an exercise
in intellectual rigor for those in the middle- and upper-class who live in
areas with little crime and violence to be willing to experiment with drug
legalization. They live far removed from the realities of the drug
trade.

But
travel to its core, to the slums and projects run by ruthless drug dealers, and
these intellectuals may rethink their position.

It's a myth that marijuana, because it is
not as harmful as cocaine, heroin or some other illegal hard drugs, is safe or
safe enough to warrant legalization.Opponents
contest that marijuana hasn't ravaged communities or that the drug itself isn't
to blame.

But that's not true. It's ravaged the community of the young.

Marijuana is the most widely used drug in
the country, especially among young people. According
to the 2012 National Survey on Drug Use and Health,
"of the 7.3 million
persons aged 12 or older classified with illicit drug dependence or abuse in
2012, 4.3
million persons had marijuana dependence or abuse," making marijuana the drug with the largest number of
people with dependence or abuse.

The medical community has warned about
the danger.

A recent Northwestern University study found
that marijuana users have abnormal brain
structure and poor memory and that chronic marijuana abuse may lead to brain
changes resembling schizophrenia. The study also reported that the younger the person starts using
marijuana, the worse the effects become.

In its own report arguing against
marijuana legalization, the American Medical
Association said: "Heavy cannabis use in adolescence causes persistent
impairments in neurocognitive performance and IQ, and use is associated with
increased rates of anxiety, mood and psychotic thought disorders."

The country can ill-afford a costly
experiment with drugs. While
we are undergoing a national debate over improving health care costs and
education performance, legalizing marijuana
will undercut those vital missions.

We will wait and see what Colorado's and Washington's
experiments hold, but I expect that after several years, we will see marijuana
use rise dramatically, even among adolescents.The states will come to regret their decisions.

As the late, great political scientist
James Q. Wilson remarked, "The central problem with legalizing drugs is
that it will increase drug consumption" -- and all its inherent harm.

Friday, January 17, 2014

The statement from the International Task Force on Strategic Drug Policy on the
situation in Colorado
is now published in English. It is posted in the Journal of Global DrugPolicy
and on the Task Force web site (www.itfsdp.org).

You can read the document by going to either of these sites.

We are posting this information because Al Arsenault, Dr. Colin Mangham and nour President, Chuck Doucette are all members of the International Task Force on Strategic Drug Policy.

Thursday, January 16, 2014

Normalising pot is priming a public-health time bomb

Since the drive to
legalise medical marijuana began in the US in the 1990s, marijuana use
doubled and the perception of its harm halved. As Colorado and
Washington formally legitimise and sanction its recreational use, these
dangerous inverse trends can only continue, Kathy Gyngell warns.

On
1 January, to much media fanfare, Colorado became the first state in
the US to legalise smoking dope. Since then, our TV screens and
newspapers have brought us the less-than-salutary sight of long lines of
customers queuing for their ‘soma’, in freezing temperatures to boot,
begging the question of whether the denizens of Colorado have nothing
better to do with their lives. Out of sight are the financial vultures
wheeling to cash in on this hot new market. Price - Colorado ran out
of pot in the first week – is not putting off its addicted customers.

The ‘medical’ marijuana business was already worth about $1.4billion
dollars last year. Once pot can be pushed legitimately, once banks
decide that investing is this boom is not a moral bridge too far, the
sky will be the ceiling on the value of this business.

This is why the recent research finding about teen marihuana use and their perceptions of risk are so worrying.

The 2013 Monitoring the Future Survey
(an annual survey of 8th, 10th and 12th-graders by the National
Institute on Drug Abuse and the University of Michigan) reports that far
fewer teenagers in the US today view regular marijuana use as harmful
as their counterparts did before the campaign to legalise medical
marijuana began in the 1990s. Rising use has been accompanied by
diminishing perceptions of harm. Evidence points to this being a direct
outcome of legalising marijuana for purported medical use – the
political sleight of hand used by 21 states to decriminalise it since
1996.

It
is no coincidence that marijuana is the only drug in the US whose use
is on the rise. This is in contrast to use of ll other illicit drugs
which are all in persistent decline, particularly cocaine, the use of
which has dropped by 75% in 25 years, as the recent United Nation’s World Drug Reports confirm.

Marijuana alone is on a persistent incline upward – and not just for
adults. Its use by high-school seniors has doubled since 1991. Last
year, teen use rose again, from 11.4% to 12.7% (8th graders) and from
28% to just under 30% (10th graders). A worrying 36% of high-school
seniors used pot in the last year. One in every 15 of them (6.5%) used
it daily.What
this latest survey exposes is the Pandora’s box of medical marijuana.
Of the 12th graders sampled by the survey who had used marijuana in the
12 months prior to being questioned and who lived in states that passed
such laws, one third of them (34%) said that one of their sources of
marijuana was another person's medical marijuana prescription. 6%
reported getting it from their own prescription.
The States with medical marijuana laws have failed to prevent its
diversion to young people. They have given adolescents another way of
obtaining the drug, exposing them to more risk.

The knowledge of this, sadly, did not stop the selfish and
dope-loving adult population in Colorado from voting for the drug’s full
legalisation. Yet the impact on their teens was clear within two years
of medical marijuana being legalised there in 2009. For in just those
two years, regular (last month) high school drug use leapt from 19% to
30% and school expulsions rose by a third, marijuana being the first
reason for them. Since full legalisation “pot problems” in Colorado’s
state schools have reportedly got even worse.

"Kids are smoking before school and during lunch breaks. They come
into school reeking of pot," one school resource officer said. "Students
don’t seem to realise that there is anything wrong with having the pot –
they act like having marijuana was an ordinary thing and no big deal.”

Marijuana
is freely available in Colorado. Any resident can legally get two
ounces of marijuana a day (at an average of $150 an ounce) and
“self-medicate” for almost any reason though even a heavy marijuana user
only would get through a quarter of an ounce a day.

Observers
say that state “regulation” of the medical marihuana industry was a
tragic joke. One group, Smart Colorado, reports that 700 medical
marijuana licenses have already been issued in Denver; that legalisation
means each of these license holders is now eligible to apply for a
recreational license as well. To put this number into context, it
compares with the approximately 201 liquor establishments and 123
pharmacies in the city of Denver. No wonder law enforcement officials
report that more marijuana is flowing into the black market and out of
Colorado in greater quantities than ever before.

Tina
Trent, a local blogger on crime and justice issues, hopes that “the
reality of legalisation” will be a wake-up call to people in Colorado
and other places as they see “people smoking pot in public and every
third storefront in the tourist district turning into a head shop”. How,
she asks, do you address bus drivers legally smoking pot before their
shifts start, and all sorts of people smoking ‘medicinal’ pot all day
long, and then getting behind the wheel?

Trent, who has written a major report
on the drug legalisation movement in California, is urging the public
to counter the propaganda from the “professional pro-drug groups funded
by George Soros". She adds that “Legislators need to seriously consider
the facts about marijuana abuse by young people".
Her plea has fallen on deaf ears. Despite significant increases in
health detection rates of risky marijuana use in Colorado since 2009,
despite sharp increases in school age marijuana use, despite evidence of
significant diversion from adults to youth, despite the ever expanding
body of scientific evidence charting the multiple and significant health
and mental health harms... there has been no government response to
this violation of federal drug laws.

It seems President Obama’s Department of Justice has decided to put
up the white flag to drug use. Such liberality may appeal to the human
rights lobby but it is priming a public-health time bomb.How
can he not be aware of the risks associated with early initiation and
regular use of marijuana by young people? Given the now hard scientific
evidence concerning marijuana’s impact on young people’s cognitive
ability, executive functioning and long term IQ, as well as its risk of
inducing psychosis and violence in anyone who takes enough, to say
nothing of its enhanced cancer risks – surely this recent
‘normalisation’ of cannabis use would be of considerable concern to the
Obama administration? It seems not.

But how long can the president, with teenage children of his own,
remain so casual about rising teen pot use under his watch? That is my
question for 2014.

This article from the U.K. was sent to us from our colleague and friend, Calvina Fay of Drug Free America.

Thursday, January 9, 2014

Turning point - Many politicians and addictions stakeholders were on
hand for a groundbreaking Dec. 18 at the site of a women’s addictions
recovery house slated to open adjacent to Murdo Frazer Park in the
spring. Turning Point Recovery Society executive director Brenda Plant;
North Van-Lonsdale MLA Naomi Yamamoto; District of North Van Mayor
Richard Walton, Vancouver Coastal Health mental health and addictions
director Elizabeth Stanger; North Van MP Andrew Saxton; West
Vancouver-Capilano MLA Ralph Sultan; Turning Point Recovery Society
board chair Gary Schubak and District of North Van Coun. Doug
MacKay-Dunn.

At
the height of her alcohol addiction, North Shore resident Jane couldn’t
shake her self-destructive routine of drinking on the way to work and
“getting hammered” on the return trip home.

There was a specific route that she would take — one that purposely
took her past a liquor store near Lonsdale Quay. Living on her own at
the time, Jane (not her real name), lacked a solid support system to
help her break the vicious cycle of alcohol abuse.

“I was losing track of days because I blacked out a lot,” she
recalls. “The consequences were getting worse. I found myself in the
drunk tank and had no idea how I got there.”

Four years ago, Jane who was now broke, finally hit rock bottom and
was ready to seek treatment. It was through her Alcoholics Anonymous
sponsor that she learned of the Turning Point Recovery Society — which operates addiction treatment facilities in Vancouver and Richmond.

Jane stayed at the Vancouver recovery house where, for three months,
she received counselling, took yoga classes and learned life skills.
There were chores that she would have to complete each week. And, at the
end of the day, she was in a safe place — free from the lure of a
seemingly innocuous glass of wine.

While in residential treatment, Jane made a connection with one
counsellor in particular who inspired her to go back to school.
Essentially, says Jane, Turning Point put her back on the right path to a
healthy and happy life.

“I feel like I have even more tools,” Jane explains. “It’s a long journey, it doesn’t happen overnight.”
Jane is just one of the 30 per cent of Turning Point clients that
have come from the North Shore in the past five years. Soon, those
struggling with addiction will be able to receive treatment at a
residential facility on this side of the water.

Doug MacKay-Dunn felt a little lighter at the groundbreaking last
month for Turning Point’s new women’s addictions recovery house set to
open adjacent to Murdo Frazer Park in the spring. The District of North
Vancouver councillor has been championing for the North Shore’s
first-ever public drug and alcohol recovery centre for over a decade.

In 1999, MacKay-Dunn — a former Vancouver Police Department inspector
and one-time Downtown Eastside beat cop — helped establish the North
Shore’s first substance abuse task force.
The strong advocate of detox and rehab programs that provide
increased support for the families sees a correlation between these
addiction support services and the reduction of both violent and
property crimes.

“I’ve talked about it being the only answer, as far as I am
concerned, to deal with this ballooning drug and alcohol addiction
problem,” says MacKay-Dunn.

The problem has hit home for his family. MacKay-Dunn’s daughter had
her cellphone stolen while she was riding the bus in North Van. The
thief was a 16-year-old, drug-addicted criminal with a “significant”
crystal meth dependency, according to MacKay-Dunn.

Now that a women’s treatment facility is on the way, MacKay-Dunn will
concentrate his efforts on bringing a similar addictions recovery
program for youth to the North Shore.

“This is a problem that is going to be significant,” says MacKay-Dunn
of substance abuse among youth. “There are impacts on the criminal
justice system, because we are not dealing with the root cause. More and
more young people have a huge problem with mental health deficits, some
of which has been brought on by the use of drugs.”

Turning Point executive director Brenda Plant says she welcomes those
discussions for a youth facility on the North Shore. The recovery
society currently operates two men’s and two women’s facilities.
Plant says the decision to open a women’s only facility in North Van
was dictated by the results of a needs assessment conducted by Turning
Point two years ago.

“Research shows women are more vulnerable when they are in the community and homeless with an addiction issue,” explains Plant.

At the same time, Turning Point also faced opposition from some area residents for the recovery house site at 2670 Lloyd Ave.

“There is still, sadly, misperception about people in recovery from
addictions,” says Plant. “We have encountered a lot of NIMBYism. We felt
there would have been greater acceptance of a women’s shelter.”

Plant says, well it would be nice to think there are neighbourhoods
that are exempt, the reality is addiction does not have boundaries —
geographical or otherwise.

Recent Statistics Canada numbers on mental health and addiction
validate her point: One in 10 Canadians struggle with, in some cases,
several mental health or substance use disorders.

The approximately $2 million capital cost for the North Van recovery
house project is being partially funded by all three levels of
government and private donors.

While the district is providing Turning Point with the land, DNV park
property, at a substantially reduced lease rate, the federal and
provincial governments are contributing $250,000 each for a total of
$500,000. Meanwhile, Vancouver Coastal Health will provide $40,000 in
annual operational funding for program operations onsite.

North Van MP Andrew Saxton attended the facility’s groundbreaking and
later told The Outlook via email of the significance of this project
for the North Shore community.

“It will provide much needed housing support for women trying to turn
their lives around while recovering from addictions and substance
abuse,” said Saxton. “Addictions and substance abuse cost the Canadian
economy billions of dollars each year and have a huge human cost as
well, affecting thousands of Canadian families. It’s estimated that the
Canadian healthcare system spends over $1.2 billion each year treating
substance abuse.”

When asked about Turning Point’s success rate with addiction recovery, Plant explains how that’s measured along a continuum.

“It isn’t just about abstinence, it’s helping people get integrated
back into the community,” says Plant, adding that 75 to 80 per cent of
residents are still clean and sober a year after leaving Turning Point.
For Jane, who in her mid-40s, Turning Point put her on a new path,
one that includes earning a university degree and a circle of friends.

“Most importantly, I have peace of mind,” says Jane. “I’m not waking
up with the incredible feeling of guilt and the ball and chain of
addiction.”

Endorsement

"All treatment centres in B.C. should get involved and support the Drug Prevention Network. As one collective voice we need to send the message that treatment works and it saves lives. There are recovery houses, treatment centers, private, government funded, long term, short term, detox, therapeutic communities etc. Let's help support prevention and help educate the public."